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SA vs Pak: Akmal, Gul star in Pakistan's thrilling win over South Africa

September 28, 2012

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Colombo, September 28: A fiery cameo by Umar Gul and sensible show by Umar Akmal helped Pakistan snatch victory from the jaws of defeat of South Africa in the Super Eight clash of the World Twenty 20 in Colombo on Friday.

Chasing 134, Pakistan were struggling at 76/7 in 14.3 overs, before Gul executed a brilliant turnaround with his big hits.

Dale Steyn who earlier dismissed Imran Nazir, scalped Arafat.

JP Duminy gave Pakistan sixth blow by dismissing Shahid Afridi just after Jacques Kallis send back a struggling Shoaib Malik. Malik scored just 12 after facing 26 deliveries.

Earlier, Robin Peterson dismissed skipper Mohammad Hafeez (15) and Nasir Jamshed (0) in quick succession after Dale Steyn got rid off Imran Nazir (14) to reduce Pakistan to 31/3.

Steyn got opener Nazir caught by de Villiers near boundary line while both Hafeez and Jamshed was stumped out.

Kamran Akmal was the fourth batsman to fall at the score of 37 in the seventh over. Akmal was bowled out by Johan Botha.

At the score of 63, Kallis got Malik caught by Dale Steyn in the 12th over. Before addition of any run on the board, Duminy scalped Afridi to leave Pakistan reeling.

A brilliant performance by Pakistan's spin quartet helped them restrict South Africa to a mediocre 133 for six in their Group 2 Super Eights match at the ICC World Twenty20 on Friday.

South African captain AB de Villiers' decision to bat first backfired badly on a slow Premadasa track that saw Pakistan's opening bowler Umar Gul being brought into the attack in the 18th over of the innings.

Skipper Mohammad Hafeez had impressive figures of two for 23 while Saeed Ajmal gave only 26 runs in his four overs while taking the wicket of Richard Levi. Left-armer Raza Hasan and legspinner Shahid Afridi too were economical.

Seamer Yasir Arafat also used variations to good effect taking two for 25 in the process.

Jean-Paul Duminy, with an useful 48 off 38 balls, was the only South African batsman who was able to play a responsible innings. He struck two sixes and two fours. His 44-run partnership for the fifth wicket with skipper De Villiers, who contributed 25, helped South Africa reach a total which had some respectability.

After Hashim Amla was dropped by Kamran Akmal off left-arm spinner Raza's bowling, the world's premier batsman couldn't cash in on the opportunity as he offered a catch to Shoaib Malik in covers after Arafat had bowled a slower delivery. Amla made only six.

The dangerous Levi was the next man out after scoring only eight off nine deliveries when he went for an ugly reverse sweep to get bowled round his legs.

The slowness of the pitch increased the woes for the Proteas who found it increasingly difficult to hit the big shots. Even young Raza was difficult to get away as he gave only 12 runs in his three overs, including a maiden.


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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: Batting great Rahul Dravid has attributed Chennai Super Kings' consistent run in the IPL to skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's instincts, game-smarts and the incredible amount of work that goes behind the scenes.

N Srinivasan, the former BCCI president and head of India Cements, which owns the CSK franchise, agreed that Dhoni is a man of instinct who doesn't believe in attending team meetings and going over data.

Both were speaking at a webinar organised by the Great Lakes Institute of Management.

"If you look at the success CSK has had, they've got really good access to data and they've got really good access to people behind the scenes and they've run cricket teams at the junior level," Dravid said at the webinar according to ESPNcricinfo.

The former India captain added, "They understand talent and they've obviously got a good scouting process in place. But, what they also have is a captain who really understands instincts.

"So, I mean, look, I know Dhoni quite well and I hope he hasn't changed, but I know Dhoni is probably not one to look at reams of data and statistics."

The Super Kings have won the lucrative tournament three times -- one less than Mumbai Indians -- and reached the knockouts in each of the 10 seasons they have been a part of.

Srinivasan also spoke about how Dhoni's instinct and judgement contributed to his team's success at a time when a lot of emphases is placed on data.

"We're awash with data just now. To give you an example, there are bowling coaches and in a T20 game, they play videos of every batsman whom they're going to come against and they see how he got out, what's his strength, what's his weakness etc.

"So, MS Dhoni doesn't attend this, he's a pure instinct man. The bowling coach, (head coach Stephen) Fleming will be there and everybody will be there, everyone is giving opinions, (but) he'll get up and go.

"In the context of instinct, he feels that okay he can assess a batsman or player on the field, that's his judgement. On the other hand, there is so much of data that is available to help a person also analyse. It's a very difficult line to draw (between data and instinct)."

Srinivasan also recalled how Dhoni once refused to take "one outstanding player" suggested by the franchise boss as that could have broken the team's cohesion.

"There was one outstanding player that we suggested to MS, he said: 'no sir, he will spoil the team'. The cohesion within the team is important and see in America, franchise-based sport has been there for such a long time," he said.

"In India, we're just starting and we're new to it. But we at India Cements have had a lot of experience running teams at junior levels."

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News Network
June 22,2020

New Delhi, Jun 22: Claiming to be saddled with faulty equipment from China, the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) on Monday called for a boycott of sports apparatus made in that country after the violent face-off in eastern Ladakh killed 20 Army personnel last week.

The IWLF ordered four weightlifting sets, comprising barbells and weight plates, from Chinese company 'ZKC' last year. The body said that the equipment turned out to be faulty and the weightlifters are no longer using them.

"We should boycott all Chinese equipment. The Indian Weightlifting Federation has taken the decision that it will not use any equipment made in China," IWLF secretary general Sahdev Yadav said.

The IWLF, in a letter, has informed the Sports Authority of India (SAI) about its decision to stop using any equipment made in China.

"In a letter to SAI we have written that IWLF won't be using the Chinese equipment," he said.

"In future also we will not use made in china sets. We will use sets made by Indian origin companies or any other company but not from China," Yadav added.

National coach Vijay Sharma revealed that the plates were found to be sub-standard when the lifters started training again earlier this month following the easing of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

"The sets were spoilt. We can't use them now," Sharma said.

"All the weightlifters in the camp are against China. They have stopped using Chinese apps like Tik Tok. Even while ordering things online, they check where the product has been manufactured," he added.

Asked why the sets were even ordered, Sharma said they had no option as the equipment from China is to be used in the Tokyo Olympics and lifters needed to be familiar with it.

"We had ordered four sets from China for Olympic training a year ago. Now, since we have resumed training post the lockdown we haven't used them. All the lifters are against the use of Chinese equipment," he said.

He said equipment was ordered from China for the first time.

"We don't order equipment from China as the quality is very bad. This was the first time we got it."

The weightlifters are currently training with equipment made in Sweden.

"Post the lockdown we started training on sets from Swedish company 'ELICKO'. SAI has issued 10 sets for us. The main training takes place with those. Maximum international competitions have sets from ELICKO," Sharma said.

Yadav also said that there are ready alternatives to Chinese equipment.

"We have a lot of alternatives. We already have good Indian sets and we also have equipment from Sweden. We will use that, why should we use Chinese?" Yadav said.

Calls to boycott China-made goods erupted across India after the Galwan valley clash last Monday. It was the most violent face-off between the troops from the two countries in more than four decades.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has said it is open to boycotting Chinese products in the wake of the incident.

The BCCI will also review IPL's sponsorship deals, including the title deal with Chinese mobile manufacturing company Vivo later this week.

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News Network
February 11,2020

Mt. Maunganui (New Zealand), Feb 11: KL Rahul struck a combative 112 but New Zealand completed a 3-0 whitewash of India by winning the third ODI by five wickets, here on Tuesday.

Rahul helped India recover from a shaky start to post a challenging 296 for 7 but the Kiwis overhauled the target with 17 balls to spare.

This is the first whitewash that India has suffered in an ODI series in more than a decade.

Sent in to bat, India were down 62 for 3 in the 13th over after the dismissals of Mayank Agarwal (1), captain Virat Kohli (9) and Prithvi Shaw (40) but Rahul got a useful ally in in-form Shreyas Iyer (62) to take India to a competitive total.

Rahul, who hit nine fours and two sixes during his 113-ball innings, and Iyer stitched exactly 100 runs from 18.2 overs for the fourth wicket to revive the Indian innings.

After the end of the promising innings of Iyer, Rahul shared another 107 runs for the fifth wicket with Manish Pandey (42).

The Kiwis were off to a confident start in their chase with Martin Guptill (66) and Henry Nicholls (80) and putting on a 106-run stand. However, wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took three wickets to bring India back in the game.

Colin de Grandhomme (58) and Tom Latham (32), though, took their side past the finish line with an unbeaten 80-run partnership.

Brief Scores:

India: 296 for 7 in 50 overs (KL Rahul 112, Shreyas Iyer 62; Hamish Bennett 4/64).

New Zealand: 300 for 5 in 47.1 overs. (H Nicholls 80, M Guptill 66; Y Chahal 3/47).

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